E-Waste and Critical Minerals
Facts checked against sources on . How we check facts.
The world generated a record 62 million tonnes of electronic waste in 2022, up 82% from 2010, and only 22.3% of it was documented as properly collected and recycled, according to the UN's Global E-waste Monitor 2024. The monitor puts the value of the recoverable resources left unaccounted for at US$62 billion and says recycling meets only 1% of rare earth demand. Electronics hold gallium, indium, tantalum, palladium, silver and other critical minerals, but USGS reports that recovery is limited or unquantified for most of them.
US$62 billion
value of recoverable resources in e-waste that were unaccounted for
Source: Global E-waste Monitor 2024
82 Mt
e-waste expected in 2030, with the documented recycling rate falling to 20% on current trends
Source: Global E-waste Monitor 2024
Which critical minerals are in electronics, and are they recovered?
The table pairs each mineral's electronics use with what USGS says about its recovery in the United States.
| Mineral | Use in electronics (USGS) | Recovery status (USGS) |
|---|---|---|
| Gallium | Gallium arsenide and nitride integrated circuits, LEDs and photodetectors. | No old scrap recycled; only new scrap from manufacturing is reprocessed. |
| Indium | Indium tin oxide coatings on flat-panel displays; indium phosphide components. | Recovered from ITO scrap, mostly in Japan and the Republic of Korea; no U.S. quantity available. |
| Tantalum | Capacitors for electronic devices. | Recycled mostly from new scrap generated in making electronic components; may be up to 30% of consumption by domestic primary processors. |
| Platinum group metals | Computer hard disks, hybridized integrated circuits and multilayer ceramic capacitors, among other uses. | The recovery figure USGS gives is for automobile catalytic converters, not electronics. |
| Silver | Electrical and electronics was 25% of U.S. use in 2025. | About 1,000 tonnes recovered from new and old scrap, 11% of apparent consumption. |
| Beryllium | Consumer electronics were about 29% of beryllium product sales and automotive electronics 9%. | Recycling may be 20% to 25% of consumption; the leading producer recovers about 40% of the beryllium in alloy scrap. |
| Rare earths | Batteries, magnets and fluorescent lamps, among other uses. | Limited quantities recovered. The UN monitor puts e-waste recycling at 1% of demand. |
| Lithium and cobalt | Rechargeable batteries. | Construction of lithium battery recycling plants continued through 2025; no recycled volume is given. |
Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 chapters on gallium, indium, tantalum, platinum-group metals, silver, beryllium, rare earths and lithium; Global E-waste Monitor 2024.
Where does the e-waste go?
Most of the mass is not documented as recycled. The monitor reports that 22.3% was documented as properly collected and recycled in 2022, and it projects that generation will reach 82 million tonnes by 2030 while the documented rate falls to 20%. It estimates that raising collection and recycling to 60% by 2030 would bring benefits exceeding costs by more than US$38 billion. The monitor is a UN, International Telecommunication Union and UNITAR report; the page we read gives no breakdown by metal, so tonnages of individual critical minerals recovered are not available from it.
Why is e-waste a weak source of critical minerals?
E-waste holds many critical minerals in very small quantities per device, and the collection step is the weak link. A mineral like gallium, with no old-scrap recycling, or rare earths, at 1% of demand, shows that the metals are present but not being recovered at scale. The barriers page sets out the constraints USGS records, and the urban mining page shows where recovery from end-of-life products already works.
Frequently asked questions
How much e-waste does the world produce?
The world produced a record 62 million tonnes of e-waste in 2022, up 82% from 2010, according to the Global E-waste Monitor 2024. The monitor expects 82 million tonnes in 2030.
How much e-waste is recycled?
Only 22.3% of the e-waste generated in 2022 was documented as properly collected and recycled. The monitor expects the documented rate to fall to 20% by 2030 on current trends.
Can rare earths be recovered from e-waste?
Only in small quantities so far. The Global E-waste Monitor says e-waste recycling meets 1% of rare earth demand, and USGS says limited quantities of rare earths were recovered from batteries, permanent magnets and fluorescent lamps.
Which critical minerals are in a smartphone or computer?
USGS documents gallium and indium in chips and displays, tantalum in capacitors, platinum group metals in hard disks and capacitors, silver in electrical contacts, rare earths in magnets and lithium and cobalt in batteries. It does not give a bill of materials for a particular device.
Sources
Read on October 13, 2026. Figures on this page come from these documents; where a number is an estimate, the source says so.
- UN, ITU and UNITAR: The Global E-waste Monitor 2024. Headline figures from the report page; publication date not stated on the page
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: gallium, indium, tantalum, silver, beryllium, rare earths and lithium. Chapters read as PDFs; each is linked under the table
- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: platinum-group metals
